firstamendment

Extracting information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) takes persistence and understanding one’s rights under FOIA By Nick Rahaim The Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the past months have not only incited fear in immigrant communities across the country, but have caused confusion in the media, public agencies, and community groups that have sought, mostly without success, details about individuals swept up in the raids. The initial information void brings to mind Gestapo-style disappearances

Tracy case tests the power of government officials to avoid disclosure of their emails on public business. Fed up Tracy residents should refuse to pay the officials’ legal fees. By Peter Scheer Those enterprising members of the Tracy City Council have come up with a strategy to hide from public view all their written communications about government business. With a bit of legal legerdemain, they claim to be able to evade state open-government laws, transforming

Ed Code gives public school students stronger free speech protection than First Amendment, California appeals court affirms By Anthony Sanchez (CFAC) Public school students enjoy greater free speech protections from California’s Education code than under the First Amendment, a recent California court ruling confirms. The ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco focused on an anti-immigrant editorial published in the Novato High School’s newspaper in 2002 by then senior Andrew Smith.

In landmark open records case, court rules Santa Clara County must disclose parcel map database to California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) Santa Clara County must make public–at minimal cost and without restrictions on use–its digital “basemap” showing parcel boundaries, the assessor’s parcel number for each parcel, parcel address, and other similar data for all properties in the county, a court has ruled. In a lawsuit filed by CFAC, the Superior Court for Santa Clara County

MediaNews, Hearst and Clint Reilly should not be allowed to keep their secret settlement a secret By Peter Scheer News organizations are notoriously bad at covering news stories in which they are participants. Recent examples include the Wall Street Journal, whose top editors knew about Rupert Murdoch’s offer to purchase Dow Jones (owner of the Journal and related businesses) for days before the news was made public–not by the Journal, but by CNBC, a competitor.